In December the Treasury Board of Canada ordered that, starting in mid-January, all employees would be expected to return to the office for two to three days a week. Among the stated goals were: Innovation, Creativity, Fairness, and Consistency. This all ties in well with the Agile Manifesto which includes the principle “The most efficient […]
Agile Leadership
Scrum Anti-Patterns: Micromanagement
A design pattern is a description of a solution to a recurring problem. It outlines the elements that are necessary to solve the challenge without prompting the reader to address the issue in a specific way. Unfortunately, we also regularly see recurring patterns of ineffective behaviour. These are called Anti-Patterns. The following is an exploration […]
How to Get the C-Suite to Support Agile
“I’m not here to experiment. I’m here to get production stacks out the door, and Agile helps us get there.” — Tim Burke, VP of Cloud and Operating System Infrastructure Engineering at Red Hat Yearly since 2013, Scrum’s certifying body, Scrum Alliance®, sponsors the State of Scrum, a survey of more than 2,000 of their member […]
Dear Former Prime Minister
Dear Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, In early October we met in the Toronto airport while lining up to board for Edmonton. I’m the Ottawa-based management consultant, who helps organizations become more effective. You asked what it is that I do, so I’ve undertaken to explain it here briefly, in a way that’s clear regardless of […]
Yahoo Bans Work from Home – an Alternative Perspective
Face-to-face conversation is best for Scrum, but switching from work-from-home to in-office only can have dramatic effects on employees. Alternatives to drastic changes.